Over 20 infected people have link with Tablighi Jamaat: sources

Amaravati: More than half of the 40 people who tested positive for coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh allegedly have a link with the Tablighi Jamaat and attended its congregation in New Delhi between March 13 and 15, official sources said on Tuesday.

In all 21 people, who tested positive, either attended the event or transmitted it to their contacts, they said.

“As many as 17 coronavirus positive people attended the religious congregation while four others were their contacts,” official sources said.

Of the 21, Guntur and Prakasam districts have nine such patients each while East Godavari has two and Krishna one.

While the state government officials gathered information that at least 711 people from various districts of the state travelled to New Delhi for the congregation, 85 of them were yet to be traced.

The largest delegation was from Kurnool district with 189 people while Srikakulam had zero participation.

According to information with the state government that was reportedly presented to Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy at a review meeting on Tuesday, 297 out of 711 were now kept under home quarantine and 207 in government quarantine centres.

Another 122 were in hospital quarantine. “The rest 85 are yet to be tracked. Some of them might still be staying in New Delhi,” it said.

Almost all of them travelled either by Duronto Express or AP Express from Hazrat Nizamuddin from March 16 and reached various destinations across the state.

Some of them, like the first person who tested positive in Guntur city last week, met scores of people upon their return from the national capital and even allegedly hosted parties.

The first patient in Guntur is allegedly a relative of the local YSR Congress MLA Musthafa but the latter denied having hosted any party.

“Necessary action has been taken to identify the people who attended the congregation at New Delhi.

Several people have already been identified in each district and kept in isolation centers and are being treated as per the requirement,” Minorities Welfare Department

Principal Secretary Md Iliyas Rizvi said. He requested people who attended the event to voluntarily notify the Collectors of their respective districts or to the helpline 104 immediately”in their own interest and in the interest of the mankind ” to stop the spread of Covid-19.